Tulfo slams PRC over medical malpractice case pile-up

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Raffy Tulfo slammed the Professional Regulation Commission over its slow action on medical malpractice cases filed before the PRC.

During the Senate budget hearing of the Department of Labor and Employment and its attached agencies on Sept. 30, Tulfo cited as example a 2017 case in which a patient died after undergoing several medical procedures.

The doctor involved was allegedly not placed under preventive suspension, allowing a similar incident to happen again recently, with another patient suffering the same fate.

“How many patients more have to die before the PRC acts? Ten? One hundred?” Tulfo said.

PRC chair Charito Zamora said the 2017 case had been filed with the Board of Medicine in 2021 and remains at the board level – a response that angered Tulfo, who noted that it took three years for the case to be filed, and it remains pending after nearly nine years.

Labor Secretary Francis Tolentino assured Tulfo that a fact-finding team would be created to investigate the issue.